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Rachel L. Brand, the third-highest-ranking official at the Justice Department and the first woman to serve as associate attorney general, plans to step down, the department announced Friday — a resignation that comes at a moment of intense political scrutiny for the department, including some harsh criticism from President Trump.
Brand, 44, who has been in her Senate-confirmed position for only nine months, would have been in line to take over the supervision of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s Russia investigation if Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein, the department’s No. 2 official, was fired by Trump or recused himself from the matter.
Brand is leaving the Justice Department to join Walmart as the executive vice president for global governance, the company said. Her departure was first reported by the New York Times.
The possibility of Brand being thrust into the Russia investigation has increased in recent weeks as Rosenstein has come under political attack from Republicans for supporting the renewal of a surveillance warrant on a former Trump campaign adviser.
“I think it’s a disgrace what’s happening in our country,” Trump said last week when he was asked about the release of a memo from Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee claiming abuses in the Russia investigation.
“A lot of people should be ashamed of themselves and much worse than that,” Trump said.
When Trump was asked by a reporter whether he was then more likely to fire Rosenstein and whether he had confidence in him, Trump replied, “You figure that one out.”
Trump has also publicly attacked the FBI, which is a component of the Justice Department. He has blasted Attorney General Jeff Sessions for recusing himself in the Russia investigation and turning it over to Rosenstein, who then appointed Mueller as special counsel. He said he wouldn’t have appointed Sessions if he knew he was going to recuse himself from the Russia probe.
Last summer on Twitter, Trump called Sessions “beleaguered” and “very weak,” and at a news conference in the Rose Garden said he was “disappointed in Sessions.”
[For Trump and Sessions, a warm beginning turned into an icy standoff ]
With Brand’s departure, Solicitor General Noel Francisco is next in line at the Justice Department to oversee the Russia investigation after Rosenstein.
“Rachel has shown real leadership over many important divisions at the Department,” Sessions said in a statement. “I know the entire Department of Justice will miss her, but we join together in congratulating her on this new opportunity in the private sector.”
Brand in a statement thanked Sessions for his leadership and said, “I’ve seen firsthand his commitment to the rule of law and to keeping the American people safe.”
Brand has kept a low profile at the department, but in December she wrote an op-ed in The Washington Post defending the renewal of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which permits the National Security Agency to collect foreign intelligence on U.S. soil without individualized warrants.
“To keep us safe, our intelligence agencies must be able to “connect the dots” between the various pieces of information the government already lawfully possesses,” Brand wrote. “In reauthorizing Section 702, Congress must not forget the lessons we learned from 9/11.” The law was reauthorized in January.
[Justice Department official overseeing Mueller and Russia probe under increasing pressure]
Last week, Brand headed up an all-day summit on human trafficking at the department, where she told a packed room that “combating this evil is one of our top priorities at the Justice Department.” She also introduced Sessions, who in turn praised Brand for her “strong leadership as our third in command at the department.”
The news that Brand is leaving came as a surprise to many people who know her. The Federalist Society just announced Friday that Brand is scheduled to speak next week at a Washington chapter lunch.
The daughter and granddaughter of Dutch dairy farmers in Iowa, Brand has been praised for her deep knowledge of the Justice Department. She was previously President George W. Bush’s assistant attorney general for the Office of Legal Policy, which develops and implements the department’s significant policy initiatives.
[Rachel Brand takes over No. 3 position at Justice Department]
Brand has one of the department’s more politically challenging jobs, managing the lawyers who litigate civil issues, including Trump’s travel ban as well as civil rights, environmental and antitrust cases.
Shane Harris, Ellen Nakashima and Matt Zapotosky contributed to this report.
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Representative Adam B. Schiff of California, the top Democrat on the committee, had said earlier in the week that he feared that Mr. Trump would play politics with the dueling memos.
Mr. Schiff, who has traded bitter Twitter messages with the president after Mr. Trump called him one of “the biggest liars and leakers” in Washington, warned this week that Mr. Trump might call for “political edits” intended to erase embarrassing parts of the memo, not information related to national security.
In a statement on Friday night, Mr. Schiff said that Democrats had provided their memo to the F.B.I. and the Justice Department for vetting before it was approved for release by the committee. The Democratic memo was drawn from the same underlying documents as the Republican one.
“We will be reviewing the recommended redactions from D.O.J. and F.B.I., which these agencies shared with the White House,” Mr. Schiff said, “and look forward to conferring with the agencies to determine how we can properly inform the American people about the misleading attack on law enforcement by the G.O.P. and address any concerns over sources and methods.”
Mr. McGahn said Mr. Trump was “inclined to declassify” the Democratic memo, and encouraged the committee to make the changes that he said the Justice Department had identified as important for “national security and law enforcement interests.”
“The executive branch stands ready to review any subsequent draft of the Feb. 5 memorandum for declassification at the earliest opportunity,” Mr. McGahn wrote to the committee.
In his letter, Mr. McGahn said that Rod J. Rosenstein, the deputy attorney general, and the F.B.I. director, Christopher A. Wray, had identified portions of the memo for which they had “significant concerns.” Mr. McGahn referred the committee to a separate document — not released publicly — in which Mr. Wray and Mr. Rosenstein were said to provide details to the committee about those concerns.
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Spokesmen for the Justice Department did not respond Friday night to questions about the concerns that Mr. Rosenstein and Mr. Wray had reportedly expressed.
It was not immediately clear what recourse Democrats might seek against the president’s decision to hold up the release of their memo. The Democrats, led by Mr. Schiff, would need the support of Republicans, who control the committee, to force a House vote on the matter.
Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the top Senate Democrat, said bluntly, “Millions of Americans are asking one simple question: What is he hiding?”
Although Republicans eventually voted in favor of releasing the Democratic document after initially opposing it, their support for overriding the president to make public a document that is meant to undercut their own is another matter.
While many Republicans said their memo showed evidence of political bias in the early stages of the Russia investigation, Mr. Trump went further, claiming on Twitter last Saturday that the Republican memo “totally vindicates” him in the investigation.
After Mr. Schiff challenged Mr. Trump’s claim, the president lashed out on Twitter, calling him “Little Adam Schiff” and accusing him, without presenting any evidence, of leaving “closed committee hearings to illegally leak confidential information. Must be stopped!”
Democrats say their 10-page memo corrects key mischaracterizations and crucial omissions in the Republican case. The Republicans’ three-and-a-half-page memo focused on the F.B.I.’s use of material from a former British spy, Christopher Steele, to obtain a warrant to spy on Carter Page, the former Trump campaign official.
Mr. Steele was gathering information on possible connections between Russia and Trump associates, but the Republican memo says that the F.B.I. did not disclose to a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court judge that he was being paid by the Democratic National Committee and lawyers for Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign.
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People familiar with the Democratic memo said that it argues that the F.B.I. was more forthcoming with the surveillance court than Republicans had claimed. It says that while the F.B.I. did not name the Democratic National Committee or Mrs. Clinton’s campaign, the bureau did disclose to the court that the information it had received from Mr. Steele was politically motivated.
Representative Devin Nunes of California, the chairman of the Intelligence Committee and the biggest champion of the Republican memo, has since conceded that the political nature of the material was included in a footnote — a fact confirmed in a letter released this week by two senior Republican senators. But Mr. Nunes said the disclosure still fell short.
Democrats also say Republicans misrepresented the words of Andrew G. McCabe, the former deputy director of the F.B.I., when they said he told the committee late last year that the agency would not have sought a wiretap of Mr. Page without Mr. Steele’s dossier of information.
“One week ago, the Department of Justice and F.B.I. implored the White House not to release a deeply flawed and inaccurate memo prepared by Chairman Devin Nunes,” Mr. Schiff said in his statement. “The White House ignored their concerns and approved the publication of the Republican memo with no redactions even though the action was described by the agencies as extraordinarily reckless and omitting material facts.”
The F.B.I. suspected that Mr. Page, a former investment banker based in Moscow who had previously been under investigation, was acting as a Russian agent.
The surveillance warrant application itself remains under tight seal. The New York Times has filed a motion asking the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to unseal all materials related to the wiretap. There is no precedent for releasing such documents publicly.
Democrats had sought to release their memo at the same time the Republican one was made public, but lawmakers in the committee’s majority objected. They argued that the Democratic document first had to be shared with all members of the House and evaluated to ensure that it did not compromise national security.
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